If we had had time to have read the whole of chapter 23 – and perhaps the whole of chapter 24 (the longest chapter in Genesis) – we might have been fascinated by the ancient customs of the Near East – the elaborate bargaining – the finding a wife for one's son – the manner of swearing a solemn oath and so on. These are authentic insights into that far-off time – but to the heart of the matter these are only the outward clothing.

God's perspective on death and family life

On the contrary, the reality of death – especially as it affects our nearest and dearest – and the importance of family life – these are what make Abraham our brother, as well as our father in the faith. And here we see a man with his eyes on God his Friend, and upon his word of promise, as he faces the future conscious of that friendship, giving him a sense of purpose and perspective.

When we encounter such realities in our lives, we need the same perspective, so let's see, for the last time, what we can learn from the life of Abraham.

Three characteristics of Abraham's faith

I believe we have seen already – and we here see again – three characteristics of Abraham's faith in God:
1) It was a confident faith, a resurrection-faith;
2) It was a loyal faith; and
3) It was a humble faith.
In other words, it was a simple and obedient trust in a mighty and wonderful God.

We saw how Abraham's trust and obedience reached its zenith when he was prepared to offer even Isaac to the Lord – and that that response had issued from a trust in God which could not doubt that God would be faithful to his promise – come what may. And therefore that the Lord would provide – whether it meant Isaac's resurrection from the dead – or the provision of a substitute lamb. Such a trust comes through an experience like that, not only vindicated, but strengthened. All the rest of life is built on the God of that experience and trust.

1. A confident, resurrection-faith – and death in the family.

So when it came to the actual death of Abraham's closest and dearest – the meaning of that death had to be understood in the presence of God his Friend. There could be only one conclusion – God had not abandoned him, nor would he ever do so. Despite his tears and natural grief, God was still his friend. He had to rely on facts, not feelings. God was not powerless in the face of death. He undoubtedly had a purpose and a future for Abraham – and for Sarah – beyond the present pain and loss.

How could Abraham be so sure of that? Because God had promised the whole of the land where he now dwelt – not just to his descendants – but to Abraham also – forever: The whole land.. where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and to your descendants after you.. (17:8, 13:15) And that surely included Sarah as well! Burial in the promised land was not just a physical necessity – it was also a statement of Abraham's confident resurrection-faith.

God – said Stephen in his daring speech to his persecutors – God gave Abraham no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land.. (Acts 7:5) All Abraham ever owned – as a result of his own purchase, at an exorbitant price, paid to those who were then in possession of the land – was his own burial ground.

Long ago Abraham had risked all on God's promise – he'd relied utterly on God's word – when he had no son and no sight of the reality. He'd had to learn that he couldn't short-circuit the substance of that promise by his own efforts – but in Isaac, at least, he had tangible proof that God was a God of his word. The future was safe in God's hands.

Abraham – Isaac – Jacob – Joseph – all came to the same conclusion – as personal experience, based on reliance on God's word, led them to assurance. All died in faith, not having seen the substance of God's promise of the land. All insisted on being buried in Canaan – even those who died far away in Egypt.

An occupied tomb in Canaan was for them a witness to God's promise – whereas, of course, for us an empty tomb in the same land speaks to us even more powerfully of the reality of God's promise to us. But it is the same God in whom we trust. Along with Abraham, God intends that we also should look forward in confidence – not relying on ourselves – but on the God who raises the dead.

Genesis ends with these words of Joseph as he was about to die in Egypt, God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land – to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place. So Joseph died.. and was placed in a coffin in Egypt. (Gen 50:24-26)

That wasn't just sentiment or nostalgia – but a belief in a mighty God with a tremendous plan of redemption. Genesis begins in God's Paradise – but it ends sadly with a coffin in Egypt – because of man's disbelief and disobedience. But that's not the end. Our God is a Rescuer who will not be deflected, who will not fail – until Satan is defeated, his destructive work undone, and God's people are back in Paradise, in fellowship with him.

God's word to Abraham of an everlasting possession of the land not only speaks of resurrection – but of a renewed world, of which Canaan was meant to be a foretaste and a pledge. As Paul says, Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world.. (Rom 4:13)

How does all this affect us, here in the 21st century after Christ? Well, we also face the death of our loved ones – and our own death. We can either mourn as do our contemporaries – with no real hope beyond the grave – beyond perhaps a mistaken, sentimental or wistful hope, not grounded upon the word of God. Or we can have assurance in a certain future and a glorious resurrection.

How? Because Jesus was raised from the dead. He lives now and reigns with his Father – the first sheaf of God's harvest. And God's harvest consists of all those – and only those – who have put their trust in Christ, and live accordingly.

How we express that trust and assurance at the time of a death will depend on our circumstances. When I buried my wife I expressed it in the text she had already chosen for her memorial service, and which I put on her gravestone – Before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24 AV/KJV). [How sad it is that you rarely see any such expression of the Christian hope in French cemeteries!] But it will also appear in our choice of hymns at the funeral, and the way we announce the death to our friends. Let's triumph over death – it's the entrance into life and the presence of our Lord!

But, of course, it is not only in our attitude to death that we show forth our attitude to God's promise – we show it throughout our lives. There is a little incident in Genesis chapter 21, that illustrates this. Following a dispute with some of Abimelech's servants about a well, that Abraham had dug near Beersheba – Abraham secured his rights to that well by means of a treaty with Abimelech.

After that we read that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree there. Have you ever planted a tree? You don't do it, do you – unless you or your family expect to be there for quite a time. Abraham was demonstrating how he was living by faith in God, who had promised the land to him and his descendants forever.

That's why we read – at that very same time – he specifically called on the LORD as El Olam – the Everlasting God. Only an Eternal God can bring everlasting promises to pass! The tamarisk is an evergreen tree, with a very hard wood and a very long life. I'm sure it conveyed Abraham's conviction that God would cause his family to grow and take possession of the land.

Well – what spiritual trees are we planting? We inherit the labours of men who planted trees of faith in generations gone by – the translation of the Bible into our own languages – the preaching of the biblical faith, in days when that was obscured – the pioneering of great missionary and other evangelical societies – like I.C.S., Tearfund, Barnabas Trust, the Gideons and many, many others. All these were practical expressions of faith – they began as little seeds – but they required the investment of time, money and devoted labour – for which the founders often never saw the fulfillment of what God had asked them to appropriate by faith.

All of these arise from a resurrection-faith! Let us be generous of our time and possessions – or of life itself! We are children of the morning – we cannot really lose what we give away at night!

2. A loyal faith – and faith within our families.

Having faith in God means that life has a purpose, which is no longer to be self-centred or purely personal. It involves the glory of God. We should be like Paul, who said that, Christ Jesus has made me his own.. and therefore one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal.. (Phil 3:12-14 RSV) Paul's faith – Abraham's faith – and our faith – involve a commitment, a loyalty and an obedience – as well us a trust in God.

At this stage Abraham's part was to ensure the continuity of his family in the faith God had given him. Isaac's family too must exercise faith – walk with God in trust and obedience – and hasten the day when God's promise would be fulfilled. Clearly this meant a united home. Abraham and Sarah's marriage had passed through many crises – their relationship had not always been ideal – but Sarah had understood Abraham's call and had been willing to be part of it.

No heathen person, no idolator, no unbeliever, could have shared that vision. Isaac had to have a wife who also believed in the true God, and would be prepared to live in obedience to God's will. She had to be a loving support to Isaac and the influential mother of the next generation of God's people. The fact that Rebekah was flawed in each of these respects – as all are – only demonstrates the grace of God, that he works his purposes out through imperfect sinners. But this doesn't negate the right concern that Abraham had.

It may be that the urgency of such a choice doesn't hit us – because we don't experience God's work as focussed right down to our family alone – out of all the families on earth. But the issues at stake are, in many ways, the same. Will our family, will our children, will our grand-children and future generations – love and serve the Lord? We pray that, by the grace of God, they will.

But – apart from prayer – what steps do we take to ensure it? How are we teaching our children? What importance do we give to the spiritual component of their future marriages – as compared with the components of love, sexual compatibility, education, wealth and health? Shouldn't a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ be the first component of all? – however important the others undoubtedly are.

What place has it in our own marriages? If we lack that dimension – as, of course, many do – are we praying earnestly to God that our partner may experience it too? Do we trust God that they also will, by God's grace, come to share our faith?

And if we do share a common faith in the Lord – do we thank God for that? Do we pray for one another and with one another – so that our faith may be deepened? God wants to do great things in and through our homes. Let's first ask him to do great things in us! And if we have children and grand-children – let us pray likewise for them. God honours such prayers – the family is very important to him. How much do many of us owe to the faithful prayers of a parent or grand-parent?

Such a loyal trust in God is, of course, not to be restricted to our choice of marriage partner – but to every partnership and enterprise. You see – we are already in partnership with God. We cannot enter another partnership without God having a right to be in it, too. Christ died to be Lord of every area of our life. If we want God's blessing – he must be the one to decide and approve of all we do – before we make any decisions.

3. A humble faith – and its expression in our lives.

Abraham's commissioning of his servant was an expression of his loyalty to God and of his trustfulness that God would oversee what was being done in his name. But it also presents to us another aspect of Abraham's faith. It was a humble faith. We have seen that Abraham continually worshipped God and openly confessed his allegiance and God's guidance – as he does here with his servant. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths (Prov 3:6)

Abraham knew he hadn't always got it right in God's sight. Now he admits that he may not have correctly foreseen events. He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. But, because it would be asking a great deal of the woman – to accompany a stranger to a distant land to marry a man she'd never met – Abraham goes on, If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. (24:7,8)

God's servant – like Abraham's – can only do so much. He needs God's continual guidance – and God's good hand going ahead of him. Without that he can do nothing. But God's plan is not always to be clearly discerned beforehand. Especially, perhaps, in matters of the heart! God is the best match-maker. Let those who are seeking a life-partner earnestly seek his direction and ask him to bring the two of them together.

Certain imperatives and principles are clear. Isaac must not reverse Abraham's calling – by going back, leaving the promised land and going back to where Abraham came from. That would be like taking the plough and looking back. A straight furrow cannot be ploughed that way. We must look straightforward to where the furrow will end. The speed of the plough – when furrow's end will be reached – and the vicissitudes on the way – these are in God's hands.

Not only – because of his age – was Abraham dependent upon God and his servant – this whole action of finding a wife for Isaac meant that God would henceforth be dealing with Isaac, rather than with Abraham. Part of a humble faith is to recognise that. We can only do so much ourselves – then God passes the responsibility on to others. We are to accept this [in the way John the Baptist did (John 3:30)] and not try to frustrate God's will by hanging on.

It is God's purpose we serve – and not our own. God's glory and not our own. He alone is everlasting and always in control. It is God who takes the risks with each one of us. Woe to us, if we think we can cut out the risk by holding onto the reins ourselves. That is a word to all of us who have any kind of leadership role.

So, then – is our faith a confident resurrection-faith? Is our faith a loyal faith? Is our faith a humble faith?

As we have looked at Abraham's life we have discovered God's word to us. But faith implies action taken in response to God's word. Only as we respond will we discover God's character for ourselves. Trust and obedience go hand in hand. Going forward in confidence rests on the Rock that is God Himself. As we trust and obey, day by day, we shall find we can face the future, and he is there to be our Friend, our Lord and our Saviour.

                                                                                        Amen.